Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Social Marketing Tips from Stacy Altiery

While browsing at Oh My, Handmade Goodness, we discovered a fabulous article on Social Marketing written by Stacy Altiery, owner/ founder of InkSpot Workshop.Com and requested permission to share her wealth of knowledge with our Canadian fans and entrepeneurs on Gabry Road.

"I'm Stacy, a wannabe graphic design artist, blogger, mommy, wife, foodie and huge supporter of women owned businesses. I launched my custom stationery and invitation business Inkspot Workshop in April 2008 and run it from my home in Atlanta. This blog is a place where I share a little glimpse of what it's like to be a mom who runs a stationery business from her home and has a bad case of ADD! Plus a few other little interesting tid-bits I find along the way. Enjoy!"

OK, so you have a small business and you’re selling items online either with an Etsy shop, Ebay store or some other format, right? Now how do you spread the word online? The answer is Social Networking.

I’m going to break down into simple terms the different options you have for Social Media, plus use myself and my online stationery business as an example. I’m not an expert on this topic, but I do have some real world experience I’d love to share with you. So grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the read…

1. Where do I start?

That’s an easy one: get yourself a BLOG. If you are crafty and are actually making the items you sell, people want to know more about you and connect with you. It’s what set’s handcrafted, home-based businesses apart from our Made In China counterparts. A blog is basically a running diary (you are reading one right now). When you add content to your blog, it’s called a post, and your posts can be about anything you want. Most people share inside looks into their studio, show how they make their craft, talk about other interesting things that inspire them – books, music, you name it.

Blogs are free, and anyone can have one. The two most popular formats are Blogger andWordpress. They provide easy-to-use templates, and before you know it, you’ll have your blog up and running in no time. The manner in which Blogs relate to social media is the fact that you are reaching an audience, interacting with them and leading them to your products. You can also hire people to make your blog template, such as Zee Studio who developed this beautiful blog.

I’m currently enrolled in a blog class through Decor8’s Holly Becker. The class is called Blogging YourWay, and I’m really finding it to be the best thing I have been involved with in a while. Feel free to check out my blog, called The Spotter.

Do you find yourself hearing about Twitter and Facebook everywhere you look? It’s so mainstream now that news reporters have Facebook pages and Twitter accounts where you can keep up with breaking news.

It’s actually great for people like me who enjoy instant gratification. Think about it… what better way to instantly reach a huge audience when you have just launched a new product? I follow many people who are also in the stationery biz and find Twitter a great resource for reaching out to these people if I have an industry question. I recently found myself confused about which program to use for e-newsletters, so I sent a tweet asking what everyone else was using. Voila! I discovered MailChimp (more about that later).

Facebook is a bit different than Twitter. I like to think of Facebook as a mini-blog. You post status updates, similar to Twitter, but you have the ability to include photos and you are not character limited as with Twitter, so your posts can be longer. It’s also easier to see when your friends have responded to something you have posted, as it keeps everything neat and organized on your main page. Also with the basic/personal Facebook account, you have to approve the people who “friend request” you. In other words you won’t have random people seeing what you have posted, unlike Twitter. There are many security options with Facebook too, so your precious pics of the little ones won’t get into the wrong hands. Like everything else, Facebook is free to join.

With Facebook there are two types of pages you can have. The first is a Standard Personal Facebook Page – this will be under your full name so people can find you. If you are a married woman and want your old high school friends to find you, include your first name, maiden name and last name. Personally, I use my Facebook personal page as a way to keep up with my old, Ohio High School friends and current Atlanta friends, plus all friends in between. I do not include the name of my employer {day job} in my profile because really, do I want the people I work with seeing pictures of me with a perm and mullet from 9th grade? Whatever you place in your profile is a keyword that other people may find you when they do a profile search. I do have the names of all the schools I attended, as a way to keep up with old classmates. It’s a blast, and I’ve reconnected with many blasts from my past.

The second is a Facebook Fan Page. This is where Facebook can really apply to your online business. Again, it’s like a mini blog and a place where I re-post content from my full blog (great way to get more blog readers) among other various items. It’s called a Fan page because the people who follow you are fans of your business. These are not necessarily the same people who follow your personal page. By the way, you must have a standard Facebook account before you can add a business Fan page.

You can also follow any business you like by clicking on the “become a fan” button you will find on just about every Facebook page out there. Unlike your personal page, to be a fan you don’t have to get an approval like you do with a friend request.

Both Twitter and Facebook Fan pages are a great way to offer a special code to your followers to use (perhaps) as a discount on your website. To see examples of how I use this tool, become a fan of InkSpot Workshop.

3. Is there an easy way to group together all of my customer’s email addresses and send information to them when I launch new products or have special promotions?

Let’s face it, not everyone is plugged into social media so there needs to be a way to get back to the basics with simple, old e-mail. Of course you could also connect with your customers via postcards sent through snail mail, but my experience has shown me that it’s easier to get a person to click on your website or other link while they are on the computer such as in the body of an email, compared to when they receive your information hard copy, like a postcard. My advice, save your money on doing a snail mail campaign and stick to perfecting the art of the e-mail campaign.

Today this is made easier than ever with services such as Mail Chimp or Constant Contact, to name a couple. Some services require a small fee and others are free. As I mentioned earlier in this post, I discovered Mail Chimp from my Twitter friends and I LOVE it! So easy to use. It’s a great way to get your customer’s email addresses organized into one list, plus they have templates for you to use so your emails look extremely professional and include pictures of your products. Plus they give you detailed statistics as to how each and every “campaign” you send is working. You will find out how many people actually opened your email and clicked on the links you included to your shop.

There is also a way to create an online sign up form for people who want to be added to your email list for when you send e-newsletters. This is just another way to stay in touch with people and make a connection. I try to send something to my list once a month and always include a special discount code for them to use on my website. Perfect for announcing a new line of products or breaking news of your business.

4. I really enjoy taking pictures and have a bunch of shots of my products, plus other items I find interesting. Is there a place to just share pictures?

You betcha, it’s called Flickr. Although I do have a Flickr account, it’s the one Social Networking site I have not completely utilized, like the others. I do know many people enjoy this site and talk about it, so I encourage you to see what it’s all about for yourself and how you could work it into your own social networking efforts. Basically it’s a place where you can upload and group your photos, plus add comments. Other people follow your “photostream” and make comments too. I also use Flickr to find great pictures to use on my blog from time to time and of course give proper photo credits.

4. My new favorite Social Networking site!!!

I just learned about this new tool called FormSpring. Great, another place where I need to keep up with things, right? Well this is really different from all of the above mentioned Social Media sites. FormSpring actually allows you to ask anyone a question and vice versa. It’s a virtual Q&A or a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) stream on all sorts of different topics from all different types of people.

Similar to all other sites, you follow people and they follow you, no need for approval like Facebook. FormSpring can also link to your Facebook and Twitter account so you follow all the same people. I’ve learned so much more about the stationery and blogging business from this incredible tool, plus it’s also free to join. Come ask me anything! Plus see what others have already asked me.

I hope that your brain is not about to explode after reading this rather lenghty post, but I wanted to make sure I at least touched upon all of the most popular Social Media sites so you could have some form of working knowledge. Interestingly enough, most of these sites are linked together so you do not have to post the same information everywhere, just post once, and it updates all your social media sites. The following is an example of how I incorporate all social media to get the message out.

Info I wanted to get out to the world: InkSpot Workshop launches new line for Holiday 2009

Steps:

Created a post on my blog where I showed pictures and included direct links to where readers could buy everything

Went to Twitter and tweeted “just launched new designs for holidays, come see http://www…”

Went to my Facebook Fanpage. Posted pictures and links to the new line and offered a special code for followers to use on my website to get free shipping. (If I didn’t want to offer a code, I could have just waited for my blog host, Blogger, to post the same info automatically on my Fanpage. There is a function that directly links everything you post on your blog to your Facebook Fanpage.)

Created a direct e-mail campaign through Mail Chimp where I included pictures and direct links to where they could buy and also included a special code for my existing customers to use for a 25% discount plus free shipping.

Sat back and watched the orders start to come in.

Thank you Stacey and the team at Oh My Handmade Goodness for sharing your tips on Social Networking! Your Canadian fans so very much appreciate your great insights!

My favorite part of Twitter is how you can find so many interesting people to follow, simply by looking at the people your favorite people follow. Does that make sense? It’s like the old “they told 2 friends, then they each told 2 friends, and so on, and so on…” It’s also the same way so many people can find you and get introduced to your website and blog. If you do not have a Twitter account, what are you waiting for? It’s free. Please come follow me.

Twitter is a place where you can make a quick update, where you post short randomness that could be anything from, “I just found the coolest new lipbalm www.mama.com” or “Check out my latest designs for Spring www.inkspotworkshop.com”. And yes, some people even post “Mmmmm, just had the best egg salad sandwich”. With Twitter people who find you interesting follow you, and likewise you follow people you find interesting. You are constantly updated with the “tweets” the people you follow are posting.

2 comments:

Wow this is one packed full of valuable information and links. I clicked on a few and have certainly learned things I did not know.Thanks Rosa for finding this and Stacy for the clear insiteful information